Break the Equation - John E. Smith

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

My Niece who lives in Upstate New York recently graduated
from high school. As much as I wanted to be there thinks just didn’t work out.
I wanted to do something meaningful, so I figured I would write her a letter.
She worked really hard to get into college so I wanted to tell her all the
things I learned about getting through college. Included below is the letter
and 16 thing anyone going into college should know.

Hi Sami… I hope you are enjoying your graduation. I really
wish I could be there, but lots of things just didn’t make it an ideal
situation. :( So I thought I would write you a letter. I want you to know I am
so very, very proud of you!!! I know you have put in lots of hard work, effort
and persistence, against great odds to get to this point and in a positive
direction going forward. Great Job! Be Proud! Smile like hell! You’ve earned
it! :D

There were a few tips and tricks that I learned while I was
struggling, and I mean struggling (it took me 5 years) to get through college
and I thought I would share them with you here… I hope they help.

College has nothing to do with intelligence (or
at least very little). Collage is all about persistence. So just keep working
at it, never give up and you will get there.

Start classes early, first class should be
around 8 am, and get as many done in the morning as possible. Take and enjoy
naps! :D

Go to class, sit in the front row, do homework immediately
(don’t leave the building until home work is done)

Stay after class at least once a week and ask
the professor a question (even if you don’t have one). …make sure the professor
knows who you are and knows you by name.

Know which professors are good… choose classes
based on good (great) professors not topics.

Build momentum you first semester or two… start
with good grades and lots of focus, this early momentum will carry you through.

Get involved in groups, pick 3 or 4 groups per semester
you are interested in and join those groups… keep adding and dropping until you
have a 3 you are really passionate about.

Facebook: only add people as FB friends that are
family or add happiness to you life.

LinkedIn: create a LinkedIn account immediately.
Link will everyone you meeting that can add value(now or in the future)…
teachers, guest speakers, friends, older classmates, and especially anyone
already in the workforce… always maintain this account it high quality, it will
become very valuable later in life.

Create a blog and post once a month… just write
about yourself and what you think.

Build great friends, these will be your friends
for life, put great effort into this.

Start off and always be frugal with your meal
card… it always runs out.

Plan and make at least a 2 spring break trips to
Florida or somewhere fun.

@Parties: never fall asleep, keep shoes on, know
the exits, don’t leave your drink and always be with a friend.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

What’s the number one thing you can do to make
sure your company succeeds? Some say sales or market fit or even a great
product, but all of these are simply a market shift away from making your
company irrelevant. In today’s knowledge and creative-based economy the
absolute single most important thing you need to make sure your company will be
successful, is talent!

Agree with me for a moment that talent is the
most important thing you need to make sure your company will be successful. The
next question is, what are the ways you can attract talent to your company?
Personally, I would love to just answer with culture or corporate culture.
Unfortunately, culture is not what makes the world go around. Money is. So, there
are actually two answers to this question. Talent is drawn to your company by
money and culture.

There has been a lot said about advantages of
corporate culture up to this point, and I am happy to say that many
organizations are starting to understand that corporate culture is a powerful
differentiator for attracting talent. A great culture cannot only attract
talent to your company, it can stimulate considerably higher levels and longer
bouts of performance from that same talent. I am going to spend the rest of
this article talking about the other side of culture: money.

At the end of the day, we all show up to work for
money. Yes, companies are getting to the point where they understand that “why”
the company exists is just as important, but money still is the first and
foremost reason most of us show up to work. Money provides food and shelter,
and money allows for things like healthcare and retirement savings. Yet,
organizations have done a very bad job of helping people deal with, manage and
make the most of the money given to them. The common response to the financial
challenges employees are facing is to give them more money, which almost never
solves the true cause and might even make challenges worse, especially in the
long run.

For most companies, money is a taboo topic with
their employees and the topic of financial wellbeing, at least as an open
discussion, is highly discouraged. The topic of personal finances is avoided
like the plague, in fear of liability from providing advice or the dreaded
topic of compensation and current market value. Yet, studies have shown this to
be one of the areas employees desperately, need and where they are seeking the
most help and support.

Employee financial wellbeing is not simply
offering a 401k or retirement plan with some type of match. Sure, employers can
check the box with an optional annual meeting where providers talk to employees
about plan offerings, balanced portfolios and covertly push investment
products.

When surveyed, 76% of employees are living
paycheck-to-paycheck and 31% haven’t saved anything for retirement. One out of
three employees would be willing to give up all future raises for a guaranteed
income. This just isn’t cutting it.

How are your employees doing with their
day-to-day financial habits? Think it’s not your problem as an employer?Either way, you are paying for it. 44% of
employees worry about finances while at work, 29% spend time during work
dealing with personal finance problems and 49% of employees with a financial
problem are looking for a new job. Employers are paying the price in lower
productivity, lower engagement and higher turnover. For employers, this is
directly turning into a loss of talent at a high cost.

The good news is that things are changing.
Companies such as Questis are offering financial wellness as an employee
benefit. Using both real people and software, employers can now provide micro
level help on everything from tax challenges to budgeting to investment
guidance that their employees need. In fact according to a study by Aon Hewitt,
93% of larger employers are going to add a financial benefit in 2015.

As an employer, you need to accept your
employee’s financial problems as your company’s problems. Getting employees in
a good financial spot will lead to a stronger organization with less turnover,
less stress and a more engaged workforce. This creates a gateway to higher
performance, drawing more talent to your organization and ultimately a
successful business.

While culture is getting most of the spotlight
these days, it’s the combination of both culture and money working together
that will ultimately draw and keep talent at your company.

So I'll ask you... is there a way you can help the with the second most important thing on your employees minds or will you just continue to ignore it. :D

Monday, June 30, 2014

There are so many great books on time
management out there. One of my favorites is The 4-HourWorkweekby Timothy Ferriss, though I don’t
agree with his premise, I explain why below. Most of these books fall into a
handful of categories. They show: 1. How to prioritize / organize. 2. How to
say “No”. 3. Tips and trick on doing more. 4. Having someone else do it.There may be more categories, but
ultimately they are all missing the bigger picture because they focus on TIME,
as this limited constant and how to jam more stuff into it. Time management,
then turns into breaking down this constant and deciding how to manage (what you
will do) with those different parts. Really advanced people call this Life
Balance… :D

“Its
not about time, its about energy.”

Here is the big challenge, it’s not about time, it’s about energy. Manage your energy and time won’t seem to matter nearly as much, in fact with energy you can even create time. We can break down our lives into three areas, not-work, work and sleep. Let's take the last one first.

Sleep – About 10
years ago I went through a challenging time in my life after a death deifying
car accident, where I just couldn’t sleep. I read everything I could on the
topic and even had a good run with Ambien (personal note: don’t push through an
Ambien while your hungry, you’ll destroy the kitchen) I was up at 3 a.m. every
day, staring at the ceiling, worrying about getting enough sleep. I would push
on from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. trying to get back to sleep.

“If
you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying.
It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.”–
Dale Carnegie

Then I read a quote by Dale Carnegie,
maybe one of the wisest people to ever have lived. It was “stop worrying about
sleep”, as I remembered it. The full quote is “If you can't sleep, then get up
and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you,
not the lack of sleep.” I was so impressed with the simplicity of the idea I
just went with it. I started listening to my energy, if I needed sleep, I slept
and if I couldn’t sleep I did something. I no longer worried about getting enough
sleep. Learn to listen to your energy and it’s need to regenerate, sleep when
needed, do something that generates energy inside you otherwise. BTW, the more
energy you generate the less sleep you will need. These days I don’t sleep that
much… but I am a sucker for a killer nap.

“What
kills energy more (much more) then doing things you suck at or hate is not knowing
if or when that will ever end.”

Work – work is the time when you are at
work or are working. Generally you have less control over your time when you
are at work, even if you love your job. Everyone has different schedules and they
needs to meet, collaboration and communication needs to happen and it requires
time. During some of that time you get to manage your energy. The key is
knowing what gives you energy and what takes it away. I carry a list with me at
all times that lists my passions, what I do well, what I suck at and what I
hate (I call this alignment). I share this list with the people I work with and
I try to keep in my passions and what I do well as much as possible. When
people want me to do a suck or hate, I simply let them know that, and that there
might be someone else who could do that better. If they want me to do it
anyway, I seek a deadline or a light at the end of the tunnel as much as
possible. What kills energy more (much more) then doing things you suck at or
hate is not knowing if or when that will ever end.You can even, at times, use a suck at or hate to build
energy if you know when it will end.

“The
trick is to minimize the lows and maximize the highs.”

Not-Work – Not-Work is
everything else when you’re not working or sleeping. Despite obligations (which
I understand can be enormous) you do have more control over what you do during
this period. You should seek to fill at least the early and transition part of
Not-Work with as much energy creating actions as possible. When you wake up
read an inspiring quote, say a prayer of thanks, go for a run, do whatever
builds energy inside you… especially small things. Do this same thing, as you
transition from Work to Not-Work, complete one small thing, play your rock out song,
call someone and pump them up, the more and the smaller the better. This
deliberate timing of building energy has a tendency to last… then the magic
happens. You catch two high-energy days in a row… and things start to build.
Most things in life are on some type of frequency, with both highs and lows.
The trick is to minimize the lows and maximize the highs.

I first noticed this direct
translation between energy and time when I was training for an ultra marathon.
With ultras you are running somewhere between 50 and 100 miles, crazy I know.
To deal with that much running for that long, some people do a run-walk method
of 5 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking. What I was able to
notice was that during the early part of the training, when I had good energy
that 5 minutes was easy, delightful and flew by. Near the end of training, when
my energy was bad that 5 minutes took what felt like a half hour.

Think of a time you had a full days worth of work due, but you started the day right, good coffee, kiss from the spouse, fist bump from the boss. You sat down and got that full days worth of work done in 2 or 3 hours… what happened? It was energy. Similarly, think of the time you worked 6 hours of doing stuff you hated and went home. How much decompression time did you need… the energy was gone. Compare that with a day you work 12 hours, but on something that inspired you, or even just with the right team members. Were you still ready to take on the world after? …you still had plenty of energy. Managed right energy will create time, or at least make it seem considerably more meaningless.

So I’ll ask you will you continue to
manage your time in the ultimate quest of work vs. life balance or will you
create it? :D

P.S. The reason I don’t agree with
Tim’s premise is he believes you should only work 4 hours, so that you can
spend the rest of the time doing what you love. …I believe you should just make
what you love your work. :D

Saturday, May 31, 2014

As I often do, I was having a
conversation about culture and leadership, in what makes a great business. It’s
a topic I know well and with a beverage involved the conversation started to
get quite deep. The local business leader and I were heavily focused on one of
my new theories, The Leadership BELs and here is where the conversation took a turn.
His question, which came across in a heightened tone and with some demand was
one I had gotten before… However, this was the first time I was ready for it! With respect to business leadership and retention of talent, he asked.

“So
then, why did people stay working for Steve Jobs? He was a real jerk!”

I believe he is right, Steve Jobs was
a bit, ok a lot brass and tough on people, maybe even a complete jerk. Even
with all that you hardly heard about people quitting under Jobs. Jobs had
something that most leaders that have these same behaviors do not. Here are the
3 reasons people stayed working for Steve Jobs:

1.Part of something bigger
– People want to feel apart of something bigger than themselves, bigger than
just the CEO of the company. In fact if you consider Tony Hsieh’s happinessframework the fourth and final piece is “Vision/Meaning (Being part of
something bigger than yourself).” Jobs believed he could change the world. Apple certainly did and continues to do so. People stayed
working for Jobs because he made them feel part of something bigger.

2.Proud – People want to be proud of the work
they do, what they deliver and what they and their company stand for. Jobs was
super critical of the people who built Apple’s products, making no detail too
small to focus on. He was notorious for making sure leaks about products didn’t
get out. When you see the amount of pressure people we put under during this
design, build and pre-release phase, it’s hard to understand why they didn’t
all get up and quit? Was anything worth that level of treatment? However, I can
guarantee that there was not a single Apple employee that wasn’t “Proud,"
gleaming with pride, when Jobs introduced the first iPhone or pulled the Macbook Air from an
envelope at MacWorld. People stayed working for Jobs because, in the end, they were very proud!

3.Always growing – People want to feel like they are
always growing, getting better and adding new skills to themselves. Harvard’s Teresa Amabile‘s research found that nothing is more motivating than progress.
My own happiness at work theory (Happy @Work = Aligned + Growth + Listened)
includes growth. While people might have felt like Jobs ripped them a new one
over the quality of their work, Jobs always pushed his people to grow. People
stayed working for Jobs because they continued massive personal growth.

Let's be overwhelmingly clear… I am
never, ever condoning acting like a jerk. I personally believe that
culture begins with civility and simply demanding that people treat each other
with respect at all times, especially in front of others. So if you’re a jerk... STOP it, you’re no Steve Jobs!

“So
if you’re a jerk... STOP it, you’re no Steve Jobs!”

When we consider how Steve Jobs, even
with his irate behavior was able to draw and maintain such a high quality of
talent, it was only with the overwhelmingly, over the top delivery of the above
attributes dramatically out weighs his behavior, that this freak of nature was
able to be a so successful.

so I’ll ask you… do you really believe you’re the next Steve
Jobs (you’re not), and you can outweigh your behaviors or will you just adopt
his great attributes? :D

p.s. Personally, I believe that Jobs
was an alien or a time traveler… there is just no way one guy delivers all that
evolution in just one lifetime. :D